Historic Newton will be offering two cemetery walking tours in November: one on Nov. 2 of the East Parish Burying Ground, and one on Nov. 9 at Newton Cemetery.

Unlike more recent cemetery walking tours that focused on the individuals buried there, these will both be related to understanding the artistic aspects of memorialization, and how the changes in that art reflect the changing cultural understanding of death.

Tickets are $10 for members and $15 for non-members and are available to purchase online.

Each tour lasts about 1.5 hours, and participants should wear sturdy shoes, as the ground can be uneven.

“We’re excited to be doing this spotlight,” said Allegra Davis, the interim education coordinator for Historic Newton. “We think it’ll be a good chance to get out in the fall, and look at the space with fresh eyes.”

Davis is earning a master’s degree in the history of art and architecture at Boston University with a focus on 19th-century American sculpture, and she really wanted to be able to spotlight the artistic aspects of funereal monuments, as well as tying them into the changing beliefs of people who created them.

“The way cultures make art about the dead speaks a lot to their attitudes about this part of life,” she said.

The East Parish Burying Ground, which is owned by Historic Newton, dates to 1660, and the oldest still-visible grave marker is from 1672.

For the Puritans, cemeteries were not hallowed ground, and they rejected the ornate grave markers associated with Catholicism and Anglicanism. Their simple headstones featured grinning winged skulls. But as Puritan religious beliefs began to change throughout the 18th century, so did their gravestones.

By the later 1700s, there began to be depictions of cherubs, representing the soul.

“It’s the immortal soul instead of the mortal body,” said Davis.

Neo-Classical style grave markers also appear, reflecting the popularity of this artistic style in the late colonial and early republic periods. The influence of the beginning of the Romantic period and the desire for nature-inspired art also appear.

The Newton Cemetery was founded in 1855, and is still a privately owned, active burial ground. The tour will take place in the older section. It, too, reflects changing social norms around death. It was founded as part of a 19th century desire to have cemeteries not only be places to bury the dead, but also be parks and places of natural beauty. Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge was the first to be designed around this model, and Newton Cemetery soon followed.

Its full name is the Newton Cemetery and Arboretum, and today it sits on almost 100 acres of land, with numerous trees and a pond.

By the 19th century, the Protestant Newtonian religious outlook had changed into one that enjoyed the architectural details of Gothic cathedrals and religious symbolism that their Puritan forebears would have scorned as idolatrous. Davis said it comes across as much more religious to a modern viewer. It also reflects new views on the afterlife.

“A good life after death was by no means guaranteed,” said Davis about the Puritans, who were deeply concerned about who was and who was not saved. But by the 19th century, there was a flourishing belief in universalism among Protestant New Englanders. A grinning skull was out, and more gentle imagery was in.

The Victorian era also brought an even greater interest in the natural world and floral art, particularly as they began to give flowers different symbolic meanings. In addition to more Greco-Roman inspired columns, there’s also Egyptian-style art.

“There were new archaeological discoveries, and Egypt became associated with elaborate memorialization of the dead,” said Davis.

Another change in this period is family plots, as flat slate individual grave markers gave way to big obelisks and other monuments that might be ringed by stones representing the different family members buried there.

While the two tours are separate, Historic Newton does welcome people attending both tours and getting a full picture of the changing Newtonian understanding of life after death over the centuries.